The Cages-Personal Narrative

Most of us have been stuck inside during a snowstorm at some point. We may have wanted to get out of the house, but we couldn’t. We were trapped inside. Scotty, one of the kids stuck at Tattawa Regional High School, has this same problem, but worse. Scotty is one of seven students that are stuck at Tattawa Regional High School during a massive snowstorm. After the power shuts off and heat begins to seep out of the building, the students begin a race against time to escape the school which could soon become their icy grave. In the story Trapped, Michael Northrop uses descriptive language to introduce a problem, develop a mood, and create suspense.

Hey little brother sorry you can't call. I don't have any money on the phone. I haven't spoken with Mj in a month. I am so heartbroken. Your wife told me the great news and I am so happy for you both. Like I told Lamont I really don't talk to no one in Michigan. Kristy (1-2 times a week) Aretha and Fred (every other 3-4 months) maybe. Mom and Cass never. So that's that. You, Lamont and Mj are my concerns as long as you all let me be in your lives I will be. I love all my family dearly; however, along the way we have lost vital parts of who we are as a family. I think long incarcerations have made some feel that they are not family. Many people have forgotten who they are as simply Africans but on a basic level in this family we have forgotten

I always say to my family, “One day we will cross la frontera!” Living in Guadalajara, Mexico was not for the faint of heart. My family didn’t have much money and it was hard watching them sleeping on dirt floors. Mama, Roberto, and Francisco deserved better that what they had. I always imagined us crossing over to the beautiful United States. I knew one day we would cross that border so my family could have a better life.

How I can hold onto these memories for so long makes me turn cold every single time I ponder over it.

When I told her she just voluntarily gave me the rest of the money I was missing. I was extremely happy for that. Since she helped me my day went from negative back to

I couldn’t handle it anymore. I knew that I would regret not taking the blame for Tilde and her dad, but imagine how much trouble I would be in! Forget the idea of going to prison for many years, instead I would be rotting corpse, hung in front of many people! Okay so I don’t know what the punishment for taking all the blame of bringing a bunch of illegal immigrants is, but I’m pretty sure it’s something related to Guantanamo Bay. My family stared at the floor for what felt like forever, and then I simply walked back to my room, letting sleep ease my mind.

One day me and my and my friend chloe where up in the trees in her back yard we were having the best time sitting there talking and laughing about when we were little and not afraid to do anything. well that when i decided it's time to step up and make a difference and not to just sit there. well that did not end well chloe walked down well i decided to jump to the other tree and i … fell and got hooked to the tree and then fell to the cold hard ground. It did not hurt so i sat down then chloe's brother who is 5 years older than me.

“Give me Liberty or get me a Tent.” There have been better signs of course. But that was what my protest sign read for the first Occupy action I went to. I carried it proudly to a number of Occupy marches and rallies; for womens’ rights, for housing reforms, for improved prison conditions, and for a better educational system. But I made it for that first idealistic action: the Daylong Nonviolent Mass Occupation.

I still remember like it was a year ago, the first and last time that I was in jail because of him. My uncle Jackson called as usual to tell me that Luke was in Jail for stealing fruits from different baskets of the woman at the central market. I waited till the weekend to go to Chicago to pay his bail because I could not be absent from my job. I was going back to Oakland, one of the many dangerous neighborhoods. Everything had changed and right inside the house, I was hearing gun shots every one hour and a half or two hours, I found myself ben scared like never before. Nothing was the same. Later that evening that I arrived, I asked my uncle to go along with me to show he station where my brother was locked. We drove thirty minutes to get to our destination, I was so angry because my brother was there with his friends but he was the

“And there’s no way out?” I spoke after Newt explained that we were trapped in the glade, and inside those giant walls there was a maze; there was a creature called Griever—at least that’s what they called it, but no one had ever seen one and lived to tell about it because no one has ever survived a night in the maze.

The cold steel refreshed my hand as I grasped the handle to enter the phone booth. Inside laid the payphone sitting silent in the claustrophobic room. It had always trapped me when I entered, and created an atmosphere of a jail cell. Luckily, my reason for entering always masked that imaginary environment because it was to connect with others and not to be left alone. Although, on that typical sticky warm Florida afternoon the jail cell surfaced and I felt like there was no escape. I was a prisoner in my own mind; being beaten up by regret and taunted by sorrow. But, as my tears fell and my mind continued to race with grief I grew stronger and my morals shifted molding me along with them. That phone call that day changed my outlook on life

Kristine was sentenced to life in prison and they can not guarantee her another trial. Her lawyer is fighting for another trial because the evidence is strong enough to prove her as innocent. I do not think her outcome is fair because there is not enough evidence to prove her as guilty. The main reason I do not think she is guilty is because her son died with a high percentage of carbon monoxide in his blood, which means he was dead before the fire started. The fire was likely to have started in the space between the ceiling and roof because of faulty wires. With this evidence, I believe she is innocent.

Though taken prisoner, the captured have mixed emotions towards their masters. The captives become more comfortable in their environment, they begin eating their food and enjoying their culture. The captives forget their situations when their captors show even a little compassion, they begin to praise them when in reality the captors have only given them skewed freedoms. Yet, the captives begin to want to be a part of their community and begin to hate themselves for those thoughts. The narrator of Captivity strikes the earth uselessly in her dream where she yearns to be a part of a Native American ritual, because she knows she never can truly take part. Though the captee’s vision can be blurred by their closeness to the situation, the readers can see that the captors treat the captured with no human understanding by taking away their families. Ultimately, captors are portrayed negatively, even if their captives begin to want to be like them by eating their foods and yearning to be a part of their traditions.

I woke up on a cold metallic table there were wires connected to me, and the first thing I saw was this man look at me then he ran away. I was confused to why he done this. There was this mirror I looked into it and wondered what was wrong with me. Am I ugly, am I weird looking, or am I scary. I had greenish skin, I had a bar running through my neck, black hair that resembled yarn. My clothes were very formal like a businessman. My head was shaped like a block, and my eyes were tented with yellow. Each time I tried to talk it came out as a “mmmmrrrr”.

The water they poured on me was freezing. I was instantly awake, but jumping up in surprise I hit my head on the cage. I looked around frantically for my mom, dad, anyone but those people but they were everywhere. They all had these long poles with long sharp things at the end. I don't know what they were but one thing is for sure is that they hurt. The humans yelled and me calling me leftover, small , and puny. They said they would keep me for later when I would be worth more.